"Novak Djokovic was obviously struggling" - Coco Gauff points fingers at French Open late scheduling for Serb's injury withdrawal

Coco Gauff is among the top names to criticize the late starts at the French Open after Novak Djokovic was forced to stay on court till 3 am for his fourth-round encounter. The Serb, who was taking on Francisco Cerundolo, came through in five sets after the taxing encounter.

The match was the second straight five-setter for the Serb, who ended up needing medical attention in the last-16 match. Despite having a battle through, Djokovic was forced to end his French Open campaign with a withdrawal owing to a knee injury.

On being asked to react to the news in one of her post-match press conferences, Gauff said she got to know about Djokovic’s withdrawal through her coach Brad Gilbert.

The youngster said she saw Djokovic struggling during his match against Cerundolo, but was not expecting him to pull out of the tournament.

"I saw, I actually, you know, Brad [Gilbert] was actually the first person to tell me," Coco Gauff said. "Uh, he's always on top of everything that's going on on site. So, um, I was very surprised."

"I watched this match against the last, like, two sets or three sets against Francisco Cerundolo. And Yeah. I mean, I saw that he was obviously physically struggling and I honestly thought, I think everybody thought, well not everybody, but I thought he was on the verge of losing," she added.

Gauff in fact said she thought that Djokovic coming through in an epic five-set would boost his confidence and make him an even bigger contender for the title.

The American then reiterated her criticism for the 8 pm start to the night session matches at French Open, saying that the late start and the Djokovic-Cerundolo encounter going the distance likely played a part in the Serb suffering an injury and having to later withdraw from the tournament.

"And I don't know something about him and I thought when you get through a match like that, that he would win the title but um, obviously I feel like I don't want to put any words in his mouth, but I think it probably came just from the late start," the youngster said.

"And it was unfortunate that he had to, you know, the matches went five sets back to back," she continued. "So I think it was just a combination of those two things."

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"Hopefully the injury's not too serious" - Coco Gauff sends best wishes to Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic at the 2024 French Open.

During the same press conference, Coco Gauff expressed hope that Novak Djokovic’s injury was not serious and that he would be back to full fitness in time for the Wimbledon Championships, scheduled to begin in the first week of July.

"Hopefully the injury's not too serious and he can be ready for Wimbledon," Coco Gauff said.

Djokovic was the defending champion at the 2024 French Open and will lose a handful of points after having withdrawn from the tournament. In fact, Jannik Sinner is set to replace the Serb as the World No. 1 next week.

Gauff, meanwhile, continued her march at the claycourt Slam by beating Ons Jabeur to reach the semifinals. She will take on Iga Swiatek, who beat her in the 2022 French Open final.